| "Seascape J By Newton Blades" |
| "Newton Blades is a contemporary artist, known for his ‘borrowed’ and ‘reimagined’ artworks. A graduate of the Royal College of Art, Blades’ aesthetic is wide and varied, encompassing the old and the new through innovative interactions with found art. ‘Seascape J’ depicts a tranquil view of the ocean, as deep blue ripples stretch out beneath a pastel sky of primrose-yellow and dusky-blue. Seamlessly merging the painted with the photographic, Blades creates a compelling aesthetic: an ocean becalmed to bewitching effect."
Price: 100.00 |
| "Seascape K By Newton Blades" |
| "Newton Blades is a contemporary artist, known for his ‘borrowed’ and ‘reimagined’ artworks. A graduate of the Royal College of Art, Blades’ aesthetic is wide and varied, encompassing the old and the new through innovative interactions with found art. ‘Seascape K’ depicts a tranquil view of the ocean, as deep blue ripples stretch out beneath a sunset sky of warm orange and cool violet. Seamlessly merging the painted with the photographic, Blades creates a compelling aesthetic: an ocean becalmed to bewitching effect."
Price: 150.00 |
| "Seascape F By Newton Blades" |
| "Newton Blades is a contemporary artist, known for his ‘borrowed’ and ‘reimagined’ artworks. A graduate of the Royal College of Art, Blades’ aesthetic is wide and varied, encompassing the old and the new through innovative interactions with found art. ‘Seascape E’ depicts a stormy view of the ocean, as rough waves tumble beneath a peach and violet sky, streaked with wisps of grey cloud. Set along a dizzying, diagonal composition and seamlessly merging the painted with the photographic, Blades creates a compelling aesthetic: an ocean alive with bewitching effect."
Price: 100.00 |
| "Fresh Pop! By Sarah Graham" |
| "Reimagining the tradition of the still life for the twenty-first century, contemporary artist Sarah Graham works to create - in her own words - a “sense of sheer joy.” Bright, colourful, and passionately playful, Graham’s expertly crafted, photorealist paintings truly are an exquisite joy to behold. Say ‘Pop’ in relation to Modern Art and a whole cache of imagery comes to mind: Warhol and Liechtenstein, soup cans and screen prints, colourful kitsch and ironic iconography. For ‘Fresh Pop!’, Graham plays with these associations, literalising the term by painting a Chupa-Chups lollipop with photoreal precision, nestled amongst candies in colourful wrappers. This truly is fresh Pop - an all new take on one of the twentieth-century’s most enduring Modern Art movements."
Price: 450.00 |
| "Seascape D By Newton Blades" |
| "Newton Blades is a contemporary artist, known for his ‘borrowed’ and ‘reimagined’ artworks. A graduate of the Royal College of Art, Blades’ aesthetic is wide and varied, encompassing the old and the new through innovative interactions with found art. ‘Seascape D’ depicts an abstract view of sea-and-sun tranquility. As cool, pastel colour graduates from turquoise to primrose to peach, Blades captures the haze of a hot summer seascape, with bewitching beauty."
Price: 150.00 |
| "Seascape E By Newton Blades" |
| "Newton Blades is a contemporary artist, known for his ‘borrowed’ and ‘reimagined’ artworks. A graduate of the Royal College of Art, Blades’ aesthetic is wide and varied, encompassing the old and the new through innovative interactions with found art. ‘Seascape E’ depicts a tranquil view of the ocean, as deep blue ripples stretch out beneath a gently clouded sky in shades of dove grey and cool peach. Seamlessly merging the painted with the photographic, Blades creates a compelling aesthetic: an ocean becalmed to bewitching effect."
Price: 150.00 |
| "Bonbon By Maria Rivans" |
| "The work of Maria Rivans is known for its mash up of surrealism meets pop-art. Her scrapbook-like collages - with their 1950s pop-culture references - have all the playful delight of an early Paolozzi, mixed with the strange surreality of a Dali, and brought up to date with a certain sophistication and quirky aesthetic, unique to Rivans. Featuring Italian starlet Sophia Loren, ‘Bonbon’ is a celebration of female strength and capability. In the amongst tumbling flora, fauna and foliage of Rivans’ signature headdress, look out for symbols of liberation (soaring birds, prancing ponies and distant planets) as well as the defiance of tradition and convention (cheeky bunnies winking at 50s housewives) in this lively paean to the modern woman."
Price: 420.00 |
| "Lolita By Maria Rivans" |
| "The work of Maria Rivans is known for its mash up of surrealism meets pop-art. Her scrapbook-like collages - with their 1950s pop-culture references - have all the playful delight of an early Paolozzi, mixed with the strange surreality of a Dali, and brought up to date with a certain sophistication and quirky aesthetic, unique to Rivans. Featuring Swedish starlet Anita Eckberg, ‘Lolita’ celebrates the ‘sweet life’ - or La Dolce Vita, as Eckberg’s most iconic film appearance would have it in ‘la bella lingua’, Italiano! In the amongst tumbling flora, fauna and foliage of Rivans’ signature headdress, look out for symbols of pure escapism, from vintage steam trains to drifting hot air balloons, prancing winged ponies to soaring eagles, and even a glorious glimpse of sun, sea and sand…"
Price: 390.00 |
| "James Jean By Maria Rivans" |
| "The work of Maria Rivans is known for its mash up of surrealism meets pop-art. Her scrapbook-like collages - with their 1950s pop-culture references - have all the playful delight of an early Paolozzi, mixed with the strange surreality of a Dali, and brought up to date with a certain sophistication and quirky aesthetic, unique to Rivans. Featuring Hollywood icons Jean Simmons and James Dean, ‘James Jean’ explores the beauty of human relationships. Here, the star and starlet are bedecked in regal attire - nothing less than fluffy feathers, precious gems and pretty petals - while their fabulous, floral headdresses, bridged by a children’s game of tug-of-war, play house to a host of vintage imagery: from retro cars to old-school radios, from Hindu iconography to exotic birds and beasts, Rivans’ print is an eclectic celebration of diversity, connection, and the joys of simply being alive! In the amongst tumbling flora, fauna and foliage, look out for vintage cars for long road trips; buzzing bumblebees and lucky ladybugs to symbolise environmental consciousness; and even a whizzing firecracker, in this compelling collage full of life’s crackling energy!"
Price: 690.00 |
| "James Jean - Special Birthstone Colours By Maria Rivans" |
| "The work of Maria Rivans is known for its mash up of surrealism meets pop-art. Her scrapbook-like collages - with their 1950s pop-culture references - have all the playful delight of an early Paolozzi, mixed with the strange surreality of a Dali, and brought up to date with a certain sophistication and quirky aesthetic, unique to Rivans. Featuring Hollywood icons Jean Simmons and James Dean, ‘James Jean’ explores the beauty of human relationships. Here, the star and starlet are bedecked in regal attire - nothing less than fluffy feathers, precious gems and pretty petals - while their fabulous, floral headdresses, bridged by a children’s game of tug-of-war, play house to a host of vintage imagery: from retro cars to old-school radios, from Hindu iconography to exotic birds and beasts, Rivans’ print is an eclectic celebration of diversity, connection, and the joys of simply being alive! In this special birthstone colours edition, prints 1-12 are finished with a colourful crystal on the tug-of-war - one for each birth month of the year!"
Price: 750.00 |
| "The Kingdom - Landscape By Olly Howe" |
| "Contemporary artist Olly Howe is known for his digital collage aesthetic, blending elements of the past with contemporary photographic processes and flourishes of tactile, hand painted and drawn elements. Its an aesthetic that celebrates modernity, calling our attention to the beauty of the contemporary, but with an eye for the surreal and the fantastical, for a delicious, dream-like atmosphere. Sharp and minimalist, ‘The Kingdom - Landscape’ works with a stripped back palette of monochrome, intercut with shards of neon-pink, to capture its surreal subject. The portrait of a woman has been obscured by fragments from the natural world: above her cherry-painted pout, birds and butterflies, tigers and serpents, mingle with thick foliage and blossoming fauna, in this vivid work of the imaginary."
Price: 365.00 |
| "Shinigami's Mask By Not Now Nancy" |
| "The work of Not Now Nancy stages a dialogue between an Arcadian past and an urban modernity, drawing conflicting themes into beautiful harmony. Her prints create a fusion of layers, building found, antique illustrations, hand drawn elements, and symbolic imagery together, to create a complex and kaleidoscopic aesthetic. Shinigami, the supernatural spirits of Japanese religious culture, are known as gods of death: tempting humans towards the abyss with siren-like seduction, these fallen angels are the ultimate muse for the visionary artist of the macabre. Enter Not Now Nancy, who depicts the Shinigami as a chimera of serpents, devilish ram’s horns, and spiked, porcupine quills, masked with the face of feminine purity. Beautifully illustrated in monochrome, and finished with highlights of gold leaf and red foil, ‘Shinigami’s Mask’ is a true temptress: just you try to resist…"
Price: 160.00 |
| "Where The Light Gets In By Elizabeth Waggett" |
| "British artist Elizabeth Waggett is known for her ‘free-spirited’ work, portraying animals, skulls, and personal trinkets to explore the relationship between value and purpose in consumer driven society. Posing as photographic imagery, each work of fine art stages a visual dichotomy between monochrome and gold leaf, crafted with traditional techniques and finished with a modern twist to confront contemporary culture and challenge conventional expectations. ‘Where the Light Gets In’ is Wagett’s nod to her own Mancunian roots, mingled with her love for her new home in New York. The print depicts a Longhorn skull - a typically American symbol - rendered in Waggett’s characteristically detailed ink and graphite illustration. Using 22kt Gold Leaf, Waggett has hand-embellished the skull with shimmering bees, the archetypal emblem of Manchester, for a beautiful celebration of the past, the present and the future that awaits…"
Price: 1250.00 |
| "Panel Of Experts, 1982 (DAMAGED) By Jean-Michel Basquiat" |
| "Small dent to the back of the print. Original price £42"
Price: 32.00 |
| "Frontiers - Diptych AP By Dan Hillier" |
| "Contemporary artist Dan Hillier merges the old with the new to exquisite effect. Trawling through scraps of Victoriana - from woodcuts to etchings, engravings and anatomical drawings - Hillier layers the up pieces from the past in a digital collage process, producing an entirely unique aesthetic that treads the line somewhere between surrealism and neo-Victoriana. There are only Artist Proofs (AP) available now"
Price: 750.00 |
| "Queen Bee By Not Now Nancy" |
| "The work of Not Now Nancy stages a dialogue between an Arcadian past and an urban modernity, drawing conflicting themes into beautiful harmony. Her prints create a fusion of layers, building found, antique illustrations, hand drawn elements, and symbolic imagery together, to create a complex and kaleidoscopic aesthetic. Not Now Nancy’s depiction of the Queen Bee blends intricate Victoriana with strains of surrealism and just a hint of contemporary Pop. In this kaleidoscopic vision, the resplendent matriarch is a concoction of the mechanical and the organic, as delicate blossoms intersect with metal cogs. For the final finishing touches, a jewelled crown bedecks the Queen Bee’s head, while stains of turquoise pigment and drips of hand applied gold leaf add a touch of decadence to this enchanting etching."
Price: 50.00 |
| "Killer Queen By Not Now Nancy" |
| "The work of Not Now Nancy stages a dialogue between an Arcadian past and an urban modernity, drawing conflicting themes into beautiful harmony. Her prints create a fusion of layers, building found, antique illustrations, hand drawn elements, and symbolic imagery together, to create a complex and kaleidoscopic aesthetic. Not Now Nancy’s depiction of a Queen Cockroach blends intricate Victoriana with strains of surrealism and just a hint of contemporary Pop. In this kaleidoscopic vision, the regal matriarch is a concoction of the mechanical and the organic, as delicate blossoms intersect with metal cogs. For the final finishing touches, a jewelled crown bedecks the insect’s head, while stains of cobalt blue pigment and drips of hand-applied gold leaf add a touch of decadence to this enchanting etching."
Price: 50.00 |
| "King II By Not Now Nancy" |
| "The work of Not Now Nancy stages a dialogue between an Arcadian past and an urban modernity, drawing conflicting themes into beautiful harmony. Her prints create a fusion of layers, building found, antique illustrations, hand drawn elements, and symbolic imagery together, to create a complex and kaleidoscopic aesthetic. The lion - that fierce king of creatures - stares out from beneath his bushy crown, a patchwork of detailed illustration: long hares and gentle roe, delicate butterfly wings and plumes of feathers, even the symmetrical skeletons of wading-birds, all coalesce to create the most majestic of beasts: welcome to the jungle."
Price: 50.00 |
| "A Quiet Neighbourhood By Bonnie and Clyde" |
| "Bonnie and Clyde has mastered the art of mixed media collage, blending photography with fine art until the lines of distinction disappear. Her brightly coloured brushstrokes - often depicting modernist architecture, expanses of sea, and palm-tree lined streets - are reminiscent of early Hockney, given an up-to-date twist with a bricolage technique, employed to unrivalled effect. Bonnie and Clyde’s ‘A Quiet Neighbourhood’ is a vision of urban paradise, concocted from self taken snaps, fragments of collage, and panels of painted pigment. Here, life unfolds lazily: blue clouds drift across white skies, kids play in their concrete surrounds, and a beautiful backdrop of colourful architecture, pink-petalled foliage, and pools of glistening water provides the ultimate setting for the ‘Quiet Neighbourhood’ of dreams."
Price: 600.00 |
| "Playground By Hello Marine" |
| "Contemporary, French artist Hello Marine is known for her bright, colourful prints, inspired by cultures of fashion in 1960s Paris. Sassy and stylish, Hello Marine’s pieces are loaded with visual appeal, for a chic, twenty-first century aesthetic. Hello Marine’s latest series depicts the classic era of the early skateboarding scene in 1970s California. For ‘Playground’, Hello Marine employs a simple, flat palette of cobalt blue and tangering, soft peach and russet brown, to capture the 70s aesthetic with modern flair. But best of all? ‘Playground’ reclaims skateboarding for girls, depicting the androgyny of the tricksy sport with Pop Art appeal."
Price: 350.00 |
| "Nihyaku By Agent X" |
| "Agent X is an experimental multimedia artist, working at the forefront of contemporary art. His memorable moniker hints at the ungraspable nature of his art, while poignantly alluding to a brutal moment in American history: X signifies the last name commonly given to African American slaves. Working under this pseudonym, the elusive artist strives to honour the victims of this history, seeing himself as “a slave to my art in a twisted way.” A beautiful burst of elements, ‘Nihyaku’ blends urban graffiti art and classical Japanese painting, as careful stencil work intersects with an explosion of aerosol drips, to depict a Japanese woman in traditional dress. Semi-abstracted in its powerful, stripped back palette of black, white, and rust-red, ‘Nihyaku’ is a beauty of contemporary art."
Price: 225.00 |
| "Laura By Hello Marine" |
| "Contemporary, French artist Hello Marine is known for her bright, colourful prints, inspired by cultures of fashion in 1960s Paris. Sassy and stylish, Hello Marine’s pieces are loaded with visual appeal, for a chic, twenty-first century aesthetic. Hello Marine’s latest series depicts the classic era of the early skateboarding scene in 1970s California. For ‘Laura’, Hello Marine employs a simple, flat palette of tangerine and cobalt blue, soft peach and russet brown, to capture the 70s aesthetic with modern flair. But best of all? ‘Laura’ reclaims skateboarding for girls, depicting the androgyny of the tricksy sport with Pop Art appeal."
Price: 350.00 |
| "Art of Flight By Olly Howe" |
| "Contemporary artist Olly Howe is known for his digital collage aesthetic, blending elements of the past with contemporary photographic processes and flourishes of tactile, hand painted and drawn elements. Its an aesthetic that celebrates modernity, calling our attention to the beauty of the contemporary, but with an eye for the surreal and the fantastical, for a delicious, dream-like atmosphere. In this kaleidoscopic portrait, a woman’s face has been overlaid with an explosion of collage elements: above her cherry-painted pout, blue and white birds spring outwards, intersecting with abstract fragments of paint and pattern, in a palette of soft peach and neon pink. A true work of the imaginary, ‘Art of Flight’ distils the beauty of the natural into the realm of the creative for a vivid work of contemporary art."
Price: 245.00 |
| "Hadouken - Standard by Mark Davies" |
| """I have and always will be absolutely shit at ‘Streetfighter 2’, I took so many beatings. I studied the small print to try and master the moves but my tactic just resorted to pressing every button I could as quickly as I could. My favourite was always Blanca, what a beast! I loved Dhalsim – he was like a double-hard Inspector Gadget. I despised Ken, arrogant as hell but he could do the ‘Hadouken’ like no other, so he had to take on Blanca one more time, oh and his crisp red outfit complemented my beast’s mane so the stage was set. FIGHT! My brother had a NES, I was useless at ‘Duck Hunt’ so I stuck to ‘Paperboy’ on the Amiga. My mate John had a SNES and ‘Streetfighter 2’, he was great at it – why was I so bloody useless? I loved the game, a million miles away from ‘Potty Pigeon’! I think I did improve, slightly but would always get slapped down by the fatty in the nappy or my head kicked off by a screeching girl. Yet ignoring my pitiful displays my memories I take from this game far outweigh the embarrassment and I loved creating this piece. Has it made me want to get back involved with the game? Yes. Will I be any better now we have the use of the internet ‘how to’ videos? No chance! It has made me think back to quality time with quality life-long mates who I know more than ever that I need to make time to see them more, different world, new battles, same characters. The original plan for this was to create a really gritty market scene and have the characters fighting amongst it but after seeing the vibrancy of the ‘Masters Of The Universe’ piece I changed direction and chose to use a backdrop of a stunning temple where the full spectrum of colours could be embraced and amplified. So, what you see is actually brutal yet beautiful, something that I have often embraced in darker pieces where we consider the negative as an art form and a thing of beauty through striving to master ones’ skill. I also always intended to overlay the scene with gameplay screen details such as the ‘life bar’ and scores but I decided against this once I saw how intense and real the scene had become and it really felt like you were stood there watching the fight unfold rather than simply playing a game. This is the very quality that I hoped to achieve where you are using every bit of your imagination to really live the moment. I am so pleased with the end result that it has 100% created the platform for exciting developments… Round Two! """
Price: 225.00 |
| "I Have the Power - Standard by Mark Davies" |
| """This piece has been absolutely brilliant to work on, excuse the pun but I have toyed with putting my stamp on the ‘Masters Of The Universe’ for a good while now and the recent move to include characters within my pieces (more on the rationale behind that to follow in 2020) provided the perfect platform for me to do something special and do justice to such an iconic and much-loved story. My aspiration is to fuel one’s imagination through the images that I create, to amplify the qualities and to stir the senses and to take you back to a period that is so special for so many and for some many reasons. It is this ability that I have built a reputation for that I have wanted to exploit in this collection and if by adding characters within the scene takes the piece to another level then why not. What I am conveying through this piece is how we saw things as a child playing with these toys, where we truly used our imagination to play. We may have been setting He-Man and his companions out on the shag pile carpet or on the kitchen table but in our head we were in Eternia and we weren’t leaving until it was time for dinner! I wish I had my toys still but I, along with my Brothers and Sister played the hell out of them so they ended up in the ‘Sandy Sunshine playgroup’ jumble stall. A low point was playing with the Sorceress (ooh err) on De-Panne beach and being called back for a ride on the go-carts and forgetting the winged beauty only to return to see the tide take her away. MERDE! Castle Grayskull was one of the best, if not the best toys I owned, damn it brings it all back just thinking about it! This piece was always going to focus on it, with the aim of building a magical landscape that I have done so many times throughout my ‘Storyteller’ works but then take it to a different direction by showing what I so often eluded to, yet maintaining integrity and not buggering about with them and making them into something that they weren’t and instead making them come to life, to be less plastic. Through my signature lighting style and the magical detailing that I inject, these iconic action figures are hopefully as you pictured them. Anyone else have a possessed Ram Man? Mine seemed to always aim his leap straight into my bloody Nesquik! This collection was always intended to be fun, to feel great looking back with the aim to look forward and I have done exactly that. It has been great fun, this piece especially as it was the first one where I moved into something completely different and I have every intention of building on that in future works. ‘Hadouken’ (Streetfighter 2) is a further example on how this has worked so well – so this is just Round One! Look within ‘The Memory Remains 2’ toyshop for a clue as to what could follow up ‘I Have The Power’ next year. """
Price: 225.00 |
| "Mad for It - Standard by Mark Davies" |
| """This was the first piece that I created for my ‘Retrospective’ collection and I loved every minute of it, and there were a few, it took bloody ages! In the back of my mind was the pressure that there needed to be a sequel for ‘The Memory Remains’ and that was always going to be inside the toy shop. Collectors really loved the street scene and my aim for ‘Mad For It’ was to create a music driven piece that had similar traits to the street that was littered with details but from another era. I was lucky enough to be a kid in the 80’s but wow what a decade the 90’s were to be a teenager in! I started off being drawn more to the likes of the Chemical Brothers and the Prodigy, oh and randomly 70’s disco classics! My biggest musical regret was missing out on the iconic Oasis at Knebworth concert as it was just down the road from me and my mates had the time of their lives there. I remember listening to it unfold on local radio and from then on, I was hooked. As like the brilliance of the nu-metal bands in the late 90’s and early 2000’s, the ‘Madchester’ era was like no other, what a phenomenal number of bands from such a concentrated spot in the U.K. My aim was to capture this along with a large number of iconic references that we remember well from that period. The very first seed for this piece started years back and it was going to focus on the iconic Hacienda yet that switched to what we see here where we focus on the earlier stages of each band where they played in dark and cramped clubs. As like ‘The Memory Remains’ piece that gave you a glimpse of what lay inside, we get the same intrigue here with a look into the smoke-filled venue where all of the bands played before moving onwards and upwards. I have always loved music album cover artwork and there are quite a few for you to spot, some subtle whilst the most blatant being the iconic floating Rolls Royce that was inspired by the Oasis ‘Be Here Now’ album cover. I will leave you to seek out all of the details, some are completely random as you have come to expect from me – anyone who can explain the ‘Flipper’ dolphin reference is worthy of wearing a crown for the day! I absolutely loved creating this piece, the soundtrack in the studio was something else and without doubt contributed to the success of this piece and prompted a good number of last-minute references. Slip inside the eye of your mind as some might say."""
Price: 225.00 |
| "Rise of The Machine - Standard by Mark Davies" |
| """Here’s something very different for me, a scene that showcases the characters rather than eluding to them. The reason for this will become clearer in 2020 as part of my recently established ‘MD Studios’ brand but I do love the impact of this addition, something that I embraced with the ‘The Fight Of Our Lives’ (Avengers) original and ‘My Greatest Adventure’ (UP) original that went to the U.S. My ‘Lost in Hollywood’ collections have been so incredibly well received by collectors and with my previous collection continuing to be popular in galleries I was keen to create a piece that followed on and would sit really nicely within the movie artworks yet offer something a little different. What we see is an abandoned theme park that is starting to be reclaimed whilst an imposing entrance to ‘Lost in Hollywood’ world frames the scene. The cool thing is it is all a question of timing and what you see compared to what you could have missed. My previous style of not showing characters could have existed a mere ten seconds prior to what you now see, yet you now see a scenario where the machines are rising up and taking control. Like with so many other movies I have toyed with the idea of interpreting ‘Short Circuit’ for years and it was at a charity event earlier in the year and the day after ‘Lost in Hollywood 2’ was released that I was heckled by Johnny 5! It reminded me just how much I loved him from the films so I had to give him the lead role here. It was his mischievous character that is shown again here as he goes on a mission to ‘tag’ the park. I always have the main hook when planning each piece but I love to see how it evolves and adjusts as you create and build each scene and that is personified by a bumper car rocking up (well at a steady 8.8mph!) and being driven by EVE and WALL-E, totally random but really quite cute. Other iconic machines and characters play their part, quite something to imagine being stood there as Alien and Predator jump into view! Then ED-209 takes his position, he scared the hell out of me as a kid when I first watched Robocop on VHS with my mate Keith. The brutality was so raw and real I had never seen anything like it and it still freaks me out seeing the sense of panic in the room as the countdown starts. You have twenty seconds to buy! """
Price: 225.00 |
| "The Memory Remains 2 - Standard by Mark Davies" |
| """Nothing like a bit of pressure with this one! Without doubt the most requested and anticipated sequel to one of my earlier works so even though I always knew what I would do it certainly added something to the process! In fact, it almost didn’t happen, oh how we laugh seeing someone drive off with their fuel cap on their roof from a petrol station. What about leaving your studio in pitch blackness with your laptop on the roof before getting home and realising you left it in the studio but then approach a bend in the road to see what is blatantly your laptop smashed to bits after being run over by what looked like a monster truck. The piece was about 80% done and saved ‘locally’ and due to go to print in two days’ time, oh how I wept like a baby. Blubbering and crapping myself aside I luckily was saved by ‘iCloud’ and was able to finish it to what you now see today. There’s a story for the Grandkids right there. ‘The Memory Remains’ focused on an intriguing, classic toy shop – a million miles away from how we shop for our kids nowadays. So, what we see in the follow up is inside the toy shop, a nostalgic feast of pretty much every toy that you can think back to owning or wanting to own. The room is full to bursting with classic games, toys and sweets in the hope that I have created the ultimate shrine to our childhood playtime. This is without doubt the most labour-intensive piece that I have created to date, with in excess of one hundred hours going into the scene. There are subtle qualities that link visually with the first piece in terms of composition and I am keen to see if you spot them. I am always keen for my pieces to link together and this is done here by some of the toys and teddies being referenced in the toy shop that are also shown in my 2019 ‘Skool’s Out’ piece where the Summer holidays are in full swing (can’t help myself with the puns). This shows that everything revolves around the toy shop that you see here now, there was none of this shopping around or click and collecting – it was that trip in with you family or friends to the toy shop in town and you loved and lived every minute of it. So, for everyone who owns the first piece or missed out but hoped for a great follow up I genuinely hope that you love what you see and that I have done justice to your memories. I have loved every single minute of creating this piece (with the exception of paragraph 1!) and on a personal level it has reinforced what a cracking childhood I enjoyed and without doubt those memories burn more vividly than before, the best memories will always remain. """
Price: 225.00 |
| "Up for The Cup - Standard by Mark Davies" |
| """The prerequisite for this collection was to embrace looking back to help look forward and I spent a good amount of time really thinking what memories stuck from my childhood that so many would find a connection with, as opposed to pure self-indulgence. Football has always dominated my childhood and I’ve never lost the love for the beautiful game. I have so many vivid memories as a kid being taken to football matches by my Dad, Michael, be it Saturdays at Luton Town or long trips up to Elland Road. Yet it was the real treat when you were taken to Wembley to watch an England game, it was always about how you felt seeing those famous towers and all of the football coaches parked up that I remember more than the game itself. Coming home with a flag or sweatbands that you would cherish long after the game. I’ve only been to the new Wembley once (all part of being a Leeds fan!) and whilst it is a magnificent arena it is nothing in comparison to the stature of seeing those towers appear. So that was the aim for this piece, to create a scene where the stadium loomed up suddenly between buildings with a real sense of magnificence. Nostalgia personified. What we see took an absolute age as I wanted to create a perfect scenario within the London street scene. I wanted to feature an iconic green tiled boozer and a proper old-school high street shop that we can all relate to. I saw the opportunity to link nicely in with the format of ‘The Memory Remains’ and I am really pleased with how it has turned out! The piece is actually celebrating the World Cup win of 1966 with so much of the details paying homage to the Ramsey boys who lifted the ‘Jules Rimet’, there are some really subtle but beautiful details for you to seek out. However, the more you look you realise that the scene is actually set in the late 80’s, references to ‘Live Aid’ and the Queen sell out Wembley concert all help to build the story. Those who follow my work closely will know that I love to inject a multi-layered narrative where possible and this is the case with this piece. ‘Greavsies Rentals’ is a quirky TV rental shop like so many of us can remember. This detail in itself provided a really great quality to the scene but right from the start I had wanted to feature a reference to the wheeler and dealer Del Boy. I had originally intended to just have his three wheeler parked up in the side street but the more personality that grew from the rentals shop and the questionable quality of the goods I chose to showcase the source of the TV’s by insinuating that it was actually Mr Trotter himself that was supplying Greavsie! It is just a wonderful bit of randomness that I feel takes this piece away from simply being able to be embraced by football fans. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did creating it. """
Price: 225.00 |
| "A Way of Life - Large by Mark Davies" |
| "“When setting out on planning my ‘Retrospective’ collection my intention was always to give music a strong presence as it is so often the catalyst that ignites a memory no matter how far down that resides. I absolutely bloody love music, it has always had and always will have a huge influence in my art. I need music to set me free, to let me bleed. I love how an allegiance to a group can completely dominate the music you listen to, the clothes you wear and the wheels that you ride in on. I love how it becomes so much greater than the sum of it’s parts, how it takes over and becomes a way of life. ‘Quadrophenia’ has long been on the list of films to tackle for me, it was simply about timing. The cult groups of the Mods and Rockers are so iconic and seeing as though the subject matter has been ‘done to death’ and largely in the same way I wanted to do something a little different. I won’t profess to belonging to either of the two. I can’t ride a motorbike or a scooter, the closest I came was getting a bone-shaking ‘backy’ over the freshly ploughed fields of Great Barford as a kid and holding on to my mate’s big brothers motorbike as I rode back home on my Peugeot racer bike as he accelerated to the point that my tyres glowed a brighter red than all 4 cheeks. Yet my partner is desperate to own a Vespa so that’s good enough for me. Research is a big part of the planning and the key detail that kept coming up was the ‘Battle of Brighton’ where the two groups caused havoc. That got me thinking, I focused on the pure passion that both sides had for their own whilst also the dislike they also held for their rivals. As Paula Abdul once told me, opposites attract so that was my hook for this piece. What we see is the moment where two people, a Mod and a Rocker choose to meet and defy the rules to be together. Whether that be a courting couple or just mates is up to you but I love the sentiment, like a modern take on Romeo and Juliet, possibly. A sweet sacrifice. This image is all about what you don’t see that makes it so personal. I wanted to create a beautiful piece of art yet one that has an edge to it. I love how the lighting completely changes everything, unifying all of the elements. I love the calmness, the warmth, the sense of a new dawn breaking and a moment cherished. Love will always find a way."""
Price: 335.00 |
| "Hadouken - Large by Mark Davies" |
| """I have and always will be absolutely shit at ‘Streetfighter 2’, I took so many beatings. I studied the small print to try and master the moves but my tactic just resorted to pressing every button I could as quickly as I could. My favourite was always Blanca, what a beast! I loved Dhalsim – he was like a double-hard Inspector Gadget. I despised Ken, arrogant as hell but he could do the ‘Hadouken’ like no other, so he had to take on Blanca one more time, oh and his crisp red outfit complemented my beast’s mane so the stage was set. FIGHT! My brother had a NES, I was useless at ‘Duck Hunt’ so I stuck to ‘Paperboy’ on the Amiga. My mate John had a SNES and ‘Streetfighter 2’, he was great at it – why was I so bloody useless? I loved the game, a million miles away from ‘Potty Pigeon’! I think I did improve, slightly but would always get slapped down by the fatty in the nappy or my head kicked off by a screeching girl. Yet ignoring my pitiful displays my memories I take from this game far outweigh the embarrassment and I loved creating this piece. Has it made me want to get back involved with the game? Yes. Will I be any better now we have the use of the internet ‘how to’ videos? No chance! It has made me think back to quality time with quality life-long mates who I know more than ever that I need to make time to see them more, different world, new battles, same characters."" The original plan for this was to create a really gritty market scene and have the characters fighting amongst it but after seeing the vibrancy of the ‘Masters Of The Universe’ piece I changed direction and chose to use a backdrop of a stunning temple where the full spectrum of colours could be embraced and amplified. So, what you see is actually brutal yet beautiful, something that I have often embraced in darker pieces where we consider the negative as an art form and a thing of beauty through striving to master ones’ skill. I also always intended to overlay the scene with gameplay screen details such as the ‘life bar’ and scores but I decided against this once I saw how intense and real the scene had become and it really felt like you were stood there watching the fight unfold rather than simply playing a game. This is the very quality that I hoped to achieve where you are using every bit of your imagination to really live the moment. I am so pleased with the end result that it has 100% created the platform for exciting developments… Round Two!"
Price: 335.00 |
